The invention relates to a connector for the detachable connection of pairs of light conducting fibers, comprising two coupling elements in each of which end parts of at least two light conducting fibers are secured beside each other so as to be mutually in parallel in such a manner that the centre of their end faces are situated on one line in an end face of the coupling element, as well as a connector housing for receiving the two coupling elements in such a manner that their end faces engage each other, the coupling elements and the connector housing comprising aligning means to ensure that the end parts of the fibers become located two by two in the elongation of each other.
Such a connector is known, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 4,272,154. In order to minimise the light losses in the connector it is of importance that the light conducting cores of the end parts of each pair of fibers to be coupled together should become located exactly in the elongation of each other. For this purpose it is necessary for the centres of the end faces of the fibers in each of the coupling elements to be situated on one line with equal mutual distances. A second condition for a low-loss coupling is that the lines on which the centres of the fiber end faces in the two coupling elements are located, become located exactly parallel in the connector housing and that the mutual positions of at least one pair of fiber end parts to be coupled together are good. The positions of the other fiber end parts then are automatically good. In the known connector the light-conducting fibers are situated on a flat surface in the coupling element and their position is determined by grooves in a cover plate placed on said surface. A part of the flat surface not covered by the cover plate and a side face of the cover plate together with two reference faces in the connector housing constitute the aligning means. The grooves and the side faces of the cover plates of two coupling elements to be secured together must be made together in one operation so as to ensure the desired accuracy. It is, therefore, not readily possible to secure together any pair of coupling elements from a store of coupling elements without loss of accuracy. Consequently, the known connector is not so suitable for use in large numbers.